Saturday, March 21, 2015

Friday, March 6, 2015

Susan B. Anthony on New $20 bill, Valued at only $15.40?

Earlier today, President Obama announced that he will sign an executive
order removing President Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill and replace
him with women’s rights advocate Susan B. Anthony. The idea was inspired
by the organization Women On 20’s
who is currently conducting voting on which heroic American woman
should be the new face of the $20 bill. However, according to South
Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham the new $20 bill is likely to
cause mass confusion. “We have to ask ourselves, how much is this bill
going to be worth? It can’t be $20, that would just be silly. I do
believe that the value of the new $20 bill should be $15.40 or 77% of
the original value. That is fair”. In reality, women actually do make
77% of what a man makes doing the same job. Graham’s use of an actual fact,
even within a nonsensical argument, has caused some Republicans to
question his commitment to the conservative ideology where facts are the
enemy.

Considered a pioneer in the women’s suffrage movement, Anthony was also
an abolitionist and worker’s rights activist. Her efforts were integral
in the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 which granted women
the right to vote. In the almost 100 years since, women are now treated
as equals to men in every way with only minor issues such as unequal
pay, discrimination in the workplace, sexual harassment, having to
constantly fight to have legal control over their own bodies and being
blamed and shamed when they are sexually assaulted. Other than that,
they are considered perfectly equal. Anthony was honored briefly
from1979-1981 and once again in 1999 when her portrait was placed on a
$1 coin. This has many critics of the executive order asking why that
wasn’t enough for women and why liberals insist ton waging a war on men.

As for whether the value of the new $20 bill will indeed be 23% less
than face value we turn to the statement of South Carolina Republican
State Senator Tom Corbin. During a legislative dinner Corbin gave his views on gender equality:
“Well, you know God created man first,” he said. ”Then he took the rib
out of man to make woman. And you know, a rib is a lesser cut of
meat.” Given this wildly evolved view from someone who is clearly a rump
roast himself, there will likely be many liberals lining up to trade
their $15.40 for Corbin and Graham’s Susan B. Anthony $20s.